Virtuous Poet (Skald/Paladin)

Song and rhyme are the purview of skalds and bards. And while many clans boast of the power of their skalds, there are those who have been touched by righteous hand of the gods. Rare, but not unheard of, virtuous poets rove their hereditary lands creating tales of legendary renown. They demonstrate their godly devotion by weaving words of praise into their sacred songs. In so doing, they obtain divine favor and powerful abilities to aid in their battle against evil-holy songs that can smite their enemies, enhance their weapons, heal their allies, or protect them from a manner of magical effects. (Original Concept by Elghinn Lightbringer)

Primary Class: Skald.

Secondary Class: Paladin.

Alignment: Any good.

Hit Dice: d8.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The virtuous poet may select three paladin skills to add to his class skills in addition to the normal skald class skills. The virtuous poet gains a number of ranks at each level equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The virtuous poet is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with light and medium armor, but not with shields.

Spellcasting: A virtuous poet casts divine spells drawn from the bard spell list and can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. A virtuous poet otherwise learns and casts spells as a skald of equal level. He also gains bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

Detect Evil (Sp): At 1st level, a virtuous poet gains the paladin’s detect evil ability. This ability replaces scribe scroll.

Sacred Song (Su): This is exactly like the raging song ability, except that the virtuous poet’s songs are infused with divine power. A virtuous poet gains the following sacred songs.

Smiting Song (Su): At 1st level, a virtuous poet can call upon the powers of good to aid him and his allies in their struggle against evil. As a swift action, the virtuous poet chooses one target within sight. If this target is evil, a number of allies equal to the virtuous poet’s Charisma modifier (including himself) add the his Charisma bonus (if any) to their attack rolls and add 1/2 his virtuous poet level (minimum 1) to all damage rolls made against the target of his smiting song. Regardless of the target, smiting song attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smiting song is in effect, the virtuous poet and his allies gains a deflection bonus equal to his Charisma modifier (if any) to their AC against attack made by the target of the smiting song. If the virtuous poet targets a creature that is not evil, any rounds of sacred song spent on the smiting song are wasted with no effect.

The smiting song can be maintained for as long as the virtuous poet spends ro